Biography Giuseppe Valaperta

A native of Milan, Italy, Giuseppe Valaperta became a sculptor who was prominent in the early 19th century in Washington DC. Early in his career, he worked in Geno; in Madrid for Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain; and in France at the palace of Malmaison before Napolean's downfall in 1815. He arrived in DC in the fall of 1815, and for two years was employed as a sculptor at the National Capital. Among his works was a frieze with an eagle on the south wall of Statuary Hall.

He also carved in ivory and modelled red wax portraits of Jefferson, Gallatin, Madison, Monroe, and Jackson. In March, 1817, he disappeared from a boarding house in Washington, and since he left a will and was never heard of again, it is thought that he committed sui
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